Although the number of uninsured and the cost of coverage in the United States have ballooned under his watch, President George W. Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: He has doubled U.S. financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas.You can bet that there was no shortage of people in the party of Hoover who were against this, but Bush did get it done. There is not much that you are going to find that George Bush should be lauded for, but this is one.
On the other hand, his Administration was seriously asleep at the switch while the groundwork was being laid for the current deep recession/depression, so there will be a heck of a lot more people who need to use those clinics.
And don't forget, the Hooverites also cut Medicaid funding at the same time that Medicaid rolls exploded due to the Hoover-Bush Economy. Medi-Cal went from having 1.1 million enrollees to having 3.8 million enrollees in only eight years, which is the main reason California's budget exploded also during those eight years since medical costs inflation has kept trotting along at around 8% per year during those years. And honey, Medi-Cal ain't easy to get onto. For example, do you own a car worth more than $4,000? You ain't gettin' onto Medi-Cal, you have to sell your car and buy a cheap used one. Do you own your own home? Nope, you gotta walk away from it (can't sell it in this underwater market) and go live in some ghetto rental. Etc.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Medical Penguin
i cant even give him credit for that--- first a lot funding comes with strings (like abstinence education for teenagers) and like BadTux said - the explosion of people onto medicaid
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